Weather Postpones ALCS Game 4

Weather in Detroit forces postponement of Game Four of the ALCS

Coming into Wednesday night, there was one question on everybody's mind. 

Would this be the last day of the Yankee season? 

The answer is no, but not because the team won a game: Game Four of the ALCS has been postponed until Thursday afternoon due to weather in Detroit. 

We say weather as opposed to rain because there actually wasn't a drop of the wet stuff before the decision was made to cancel the game. Radar makes it clear that bad weather is on the way, however, and baseball made their call. 

The decision to protect the integrity of things by not having both teams burn a starting pitcher for a couple of innings, like in Game One of last year's ALDS, makes sense and the Yankees will be happy not to waste a CC Sabathia start. The length of time spent before tonight's cancellation was ludicrous given the weather reports available, especially if they were determined not to be delayed.

What's done is done and now it's time to look ahead one more day. Sabathia will be on the mound trying to save the Yankee season, which is good for the Yankees. 

It will also be the one game he'll be able to start on this series with the loss of Friday's off day. Sabathia could relieve in Game Seven, but starting is almost certainly out on two days rest. 

That's still fantasyland, though. The Yankees have to win Game Five first and you wonder if the delay will lead to Joe Girardi changing his lineup. 

Curtis Granderson was set to join Alex Rodriguez on the bench Wednesday night with Nick Swisher returning to the fold. It's starting to feel like Girardi is just throwing darts at the wall, which is understandable given what he's got on his hands, and perhaps overthinking things a bit. 

Everyone is slumping, but maybe you take one last shot in the biggest game of the season with the horses that got you there. Eric Chavez and Brett Gardner probably aren't winning this thing for you and they certainly aren't any likelier to win it for you than A-Rod and Granderson. 

We'll find out what Girardi does tomorrow when we try this dance all over again. A rainout worked pretty well in Bull Durham

The Yankees will have to hope that life imitates art. 

Josh Alper is also a writer for Pro Football Talk. You can follow him on Twitter.

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